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Tuesday, April 07, 2015

2439 Coconutty

I was in a Starbucks recently and
noticed a huge sign proclaiming they were now offering drinks made with Coconut
Milk made exclusively from Sumatran Coconuts. Naturally I was intrigued. Or as
it turned out, unnaturally.

The intrigue was because I didn't
know whether there was something special about Sumatran coconuts. I figured
there must be because Starbucks was making such a big deal about it. Were
Sumatran coconuts more eco-friendly? Hard to believe, if they were transporting
the milk all the way from Sumatra. Lotsa jet fuel involved...

Were the Sumatran coconuts full of
more milk, with less pesticides, and harvested with sustainable,
non-monoculture, coconut forestry techniques? Not so much. Did they take better
care of their laborers? Hard to verify.

As it turns out, most of these
points were virtually moot anyhow, since Starbucks coconut milk has just a tiny
amount of actual coconut milk, wherever it came from.

All I can say is, for a product
whose major purpose is to avoid the allergens of milk or soy, Starbucks sure
put in a lot of questionable additives. As much as non-dairy creamer.

Carrageenan, particularly, is known
to cause gut inflammation and distress not unlike the allergic reactions
coconut milk is meant to prevent. And with the addition of three, count 'em
three, gums -- gellan, xanthan and guar -- you'd think the product was
manufactured by Wrigley.

But the nutty thing is, or perhaps
I should say coconutty thing: I wouldn't have even checked if Starbucks had
just had a small subtle sign saying, "coconut milk now available."